Pakistan has long been known to have supported the Taliban and to have had links with al-Qaeda. A new book by Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy, and reviewed here by one of America’s premier terrorism experts, Bruce Hoffman, documents not only how extensive the ties were, but also the important complicity of Iran.

The authors detail Pakistan’s harboring of Osama bin-Laden.

Yet, due to the Afghan War and its difficult logistics requirements, the Bush administration was ineffective in pressuring the Pakistani regime to take a firmer line toward its own ISI military intelligence service and the refuge they provided.

In turn the Obama administration walked a delicate line with Iran in the hope not only of reaching the nuclear agreement, but of establishing rapport with Tehran.

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Bruce Hoffman’s Very Positive Review of Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy’s The Exile

The book’s main argument is that neither bin Laden nor the movement he created could have survived without the active support of persons at the apex of both Pakistan’s and especially Iran’s intelligence services. The critical roles played by both countries in sheltering and protecting key al-Qaeda leaders and their families has of course long been known. But no other publicly available source comes as close to The Exile in presenting this familiar story either in as much detail or from the first-hand perspective of the key dramatis personae. New York Times reporter Carlotta Gall’s 2014 book, The Wrong Enemy, for example, had forcefully advanced the same claim regarding Pakistan’s complicity. The Exile goes considerably further: both in fleshing out the story and providing additional substantiation through the new information from multiple first-hand perspectives that Scott-Clark and Levy rely on. –Bruce Hoffman review of Scott-Clark and Levy’s The Exile

Hoffman concludes

The Exile’s main value . . . is in the new light that it sheds on the day-to-day Herculean efforts required simultaneously to protect bin Laden and his family while maintaining open lines of communications to his deputies, acolytes, financiers, and factotums dispersed across Pakistan, Iran, and more distant battlefields.

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Robert Lieber, a professor at Georgetown, is one of the country’s leading analysts of US foreign policy, with special interests in the Middle East, Europe, and energy.

Being a “fascist” and the closest thing in a long time to dictator of the world,” and

Targeting Holocaust victims.

Antiwar demonstrations routinely featured “Bush as Hitler” imagery. Journalists spoke about trying the administration Nuremberg-style for waging the Iraq War. Especially rich is the frequency with which Dem. Sen. Robert Byrd, ironically a former Klansman, launched such attacks. A book featured a jacket with Dick Cheney sporting a Hitler-esque mustache made of oil.

The loathsome and smug New York Times columnist Paul Krugman called Mitt Romney a “charlatan,” pathologically dishonest, and untrustworthy. He said Romney doesn’t even pretend to care about poor people and wants people to die so that the rich could get richer. Romney is “completely amoral,” “a dangerous fool,” “ignorant as well as uncaring,” said Krugman.

Another commentator deemed Romney “dangerous” and “scary,” and a celebrity said “If you’re a woman, you should be very, very scared.” President Obama ran an ad against him portraying Romney as uniquely dangerous for women. “I’ve never felt this way before, but it’s a scary time to be a woman,” said a woman in the ad. Romney was frequently called a “bully,” “anti-immigrant,” “racist,” “stupid,” and “unfit” to be president.

John McCain’s rallies were alleged to be similar to those held by George Wallace. A McCain campaign video was compared to “an over-the-top parody of fascist campaign propaganda from a movie, and sounds like Triumph of the Will.” The Obama campaign claimed that McCain was playing racial politics for daring to suggest that Obama was preemptively accusing him and the GOP generally of racism.

Conclusion

I could go on, but hopefully you get the point. Racism, of course, should never be tolerated. I do not want any racists in government, including the Trump Administration. I would encourage the President-elect to choose advisors and a cabinet that reflects our country’s great diversity. I’d like to even see him pick a few Democrats. So far I am seeing too many white men. But perhaps our liberal friends have been crying wolf for a bit too long for us to take their overblown charges of racism seriously.

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The opinions in this post are those of the guest author. He and ZipDialog welcome your response.

Josh M. Kantrow is an attorney, a vice-chair of his firm’s national Professional Liability Practice, an AV® Preeminent™ peer review rated lawyer by Martindale-Hubbell, a Chicago “Top Rated Lawyer,” and a frequent speaker at legal, insurance and cyber security conferences in the United States, Britain, and Israel. Josh is active in Chicago’s Jewish community, where he has taken leadership positions. He lives in Chicago with his wife and three children.

My friend, Chris Robling, posted a video showing Pres. George W. Bush hugging a Katrina flood victim. It is genuinely touching. He also posts the contrasting picture of Pres. Obama playing golf as Louisiana residents suffer through the latest natural disaster, a devastating flood north of New Orleans.

A sharp rebuke comes from his friend, Cotton Stevenso. The makers of that video should have asked his New Orleans relatives, he says, what a giant screw-up FEMA was after Katrina and how Bush wrongly praised them. I could say the same for my own extended family and friends in NOLA. Their painful losses from Katrina were compounded by incompetent government action at all levels.

Robling and Stevenson, taken together, actually show that the President and Executive Branch have two tasks, not one, in these floods.

The more important task is the practical one: to help with on-the-ground relief. The Bush Administration and FEMA screwed that up badly, as did Louisiana’s state government and the city of New Orleans.

The secondary task is to pay a “pastoral visit” to the victims, to show care, sympathy, and empathy. The role is really one of “Head of State,” like the Queen of England, and not “Head of Government,” like the Prime Minister. Of course, there are large political ramifications for doing this head-of-state job well or poorly. So, what is this pastoral task? The President is speaking for all the country, showing the victims that we all care about their suffering and want to help. Bush did that well throughout his presidency, including his hugs for Katrina victims. But Louisiana residents were not appeased because the Administration failed in providing on-the-spot relief. Obama, on vacation and playing golf in Martha’s Vineyard, failed in this pastoral role. His Homeland Security secretary visited, but he is head of the USG’s disaster relief services and cannot effectively communicate the nation’s collective concern.

Robling and Stevenson are talking past each other: they are highlighting different roles each Presidential must play. Bush was the better emphasizer, especially after Katrina. Obama was having fun on vacation, but his administration handled practical relief better. I have no doubt which is the more important task, at least for me. I’d treasure a picture with the president for a lifetime, but, right now, I’d rather have a soft, dry bed.